Social Construction of the Past examines how mainstream scholarship constructs the past and, in creating a people's cultural history, appropriates it and turns it into a form of domination by one group over another.
Acknowledgements of the intellectual and scholarly contribution of subjugated peoples such as women, minorities, and workers has led to a critical review of the established bodies of knowledge. Social Construction of the Past looks at the way 'postcolonial' scholars redefine the nature of scholarship, and themselves, in order to develop a more egalitarian discourse. It probes the nature of the relationship of labour, race and gender to power and class. The chapters cover a broad range of topics, from the role of intellectuals in restructuring a non-apartheid South Africa, to Haitian working-class women using sexuality to resist domination.
Social Construction of the Past is essential reading for academics and students from a whole range of different social and intellectual backgrounds, including anthropology, archaeology, history, comparative literature, political science and sociology.
Author(s): George Clement Bond, Angela Gilliam
Series: One World Archaeology, 24
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 1994
Language: English
Pages: 256
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of Contributors
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
Subaltern and ‘Postcolonial Discourse’
Relations of Inequality
Alternative Constructions
Subjugated Knowledge
Liberating the Past: Invention and Appropriation
Essentialism and the Poetics of Meaning
Insurrections, Re-Evaluations and the ‘Western’ Focus
Notes
References
Part 1: The Representation of Ethnicity
Chapter 1: Ethnicity and Representation
References
Chapter 2: Racial Representations and Power in the Dependent Development of the United States South
Illegitimate Anthropology and Hegemony
The Farmers' Alliance and Postreconstruction Dependent Development
The Black Patch War and the Power of Racial Representations
The Social Construction of the Past
Notes
Acknowledgements
References
Chapter 3: Sexual Politics and the Mediation of Class, Gender and Race in Former Slave Plantation Societies: The Case of Haiti
Women's Empowerment in Haiti as Counter-Power
Haitian Sex/Gender System and Practices of Sexual Politics
Gender Division of Labour as Legacy of Plantation System
Social Relations and Mediation of Sexuality
Conclusion
Glossary
Notes
References
Chapter 4: Representation and Power: Blacks in Colombia
Iberian Social Structures
Discrimination and the Ideology of Blanqueamiento
Race Mixture and the Ideology of Lo Mestizo
Lo Mestizo, Blanqueamiento and the Black Minority
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 5: From Eden to Limbo: The Construction of Indigenism in Brazil
The Good, The Bad and the Dead
The Edenic Discourse
Innocence Found
Nativism and Nationalism
From Chateaubriand to Sting
The Civilizing Discourse
Innocence Lost
Olivegreen Garb and Drab Redtape
Out of Eden and Back Again
Notes
Acknowledgements
References
Chapter 6: Literacy and Power in Colonial Latin America
Alphabetic Literacy
Form: Orality, Literacy, Practice
Contents: Legal Documents and Social Transformation
Printing and the Transformation of Visual Images
Conclusion
Notes
Acknowledgements
References
Part 2: The Social Construction of Antiquity
Chapter 7: The Construction of Antiquity and the Egalitarian Principle: Social Constructions of the Past in the Present
Note
References
Chapter 8: The Image of Ancient Greece as a Tool for Colonialism and European Hegemony
Two Models for the Origins of Ancient Greece
Models of Greek History and Anthropology
Note
References
Chapter 9: The Politics of Identity in Archaeology
Identity and Categories of the Person
Archaeology and Nationalism
Archaeologists and Development
Archaeology and the Postmodern
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
References
Chapter 10: Gender Division of Labour in the Construction of Archaeological Knowledge in the United States
A Non-Discovery Model of Knowledge, or Knowledge as Creative Construction
The Role of Gender in the Construction of Archaeological Knowledge
Lithic Studies
Palaeoethnobotany
Palaeozoology
Interpretation of Gender as a Social Construct in Research
Acknowledgements
References
Chapter 11: Interpreting Silences: Symbol and History in the Case of Ram Janmabhoomi/Babri Masjid
The Controversy
Interpreting Silences
Symbol and History in the Case of Ram Janmabhoomi/Babri Masjid
Symbols at Ram Janmabhoomi/Babri Masjid
Making Historical 'Facts'
Notes
Acknowledgements
References
Part 3: The Scholarship of Inequality: The South African Case
Chapter 12: Lifting the Veil of Popular History: Archaeology and Politics in Urban Cape Town
Textual Archaeology
Cape Town in the Early Nineteenth Century
Texts of Domination and Opposition
Architecture and Art
Historical Texts in Present Settings
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 13: Struggling with Tradition in South Africa: The Multivocality of Images of the Past
Representing Africans as Traditional
Traditionality and the Land
Traditionality in the Tourist Industry
Using Tradition as a Resource in Gender Struggles
Conclusion: South Africa, Anthropologists and Tradition
Notes
References
Chapter 14: Intellectuals in South Africa and the Reconstructive Agenda
The Notion of Intellectuals
Intellectuals and the Political Struggle
The Production of Knowledge
Intellectuals and the 'Powers'
Intellectuals and Social Transformation
Conclusion
Notes
References
Index
